HARMFUL CHEMICALS AND GENE RESPONSE

摘要

According to results published on the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,exposure to harmful chemicals and drugs during critical development periods early in life may actually 'reprogram' the way certain genes respond to the hormone estrogen.This genetic reprogramming may determine whether people with a genetic predisposition for a disease actually develop the disease.Researchers showed that rats with a predisposition to uterine tumors received an early-life exposure to diethylstilbestrol(DES),a synthetic form of estrogen linked to vaginal cancer,the incidence of uterine tumors rised to almost 1 00 percent.